Monday, July 11, 2016

ICYMI: My Thoughts on the Jorge Mateo Suspension

As we learned yesterday and again this morning with our weekly prospects check in the New York Yankees have decided to suspend their top prospect Jorge Mateo for two weeks due to a violation of the team policy. Mateo had the honor of representing his team in the XM Futures Game stripped from him as well due to the suspension and word is flying all over the Yankees blogosphere as to why. I’m less about the why, because do you think the Yankees are really going to give us a detailed transcript of what really happened? I don’t, and more about the repercussion and such that will come from this. Here are my thoughts on the matter for better or worse.

George King reported this season that Mateo had voiced frustrations over not getting promoted to Double-A and my immediate thoughts went to Rob Refsnyder. I have said it many, many times on this blog so one more time won’t hurt. You can go backwards in your development, especially if you’re not being challenged where you are. You outgrow an affiliate and Mateo has done that in Tampa yet he remains there because the Yankees are slow to pull the trigger. It’s not just Mateo, it is Refsnyder and a slew of other prospects. Aaron Judge. Kyle Roller. Even Chad Jennings shared a story over on Lohud of a prospect earning a promotion, not getting it and admittedly falling off the face of the Earth with discouragement.

This is not a new thing with the Yankees, this is a trend. A disturbing trend but it does not excuse Mateo for whatever he did, said or whatever went down to warrant the suspension. Sometimes you can be your own worst enemy and sometimes your maturity isn’t on the actual level that you think it is. That’s not a knock on Mateo or anyone going through it but it just goes to show you that not everyone is Derek Jeter and everyone is human. All parties involved have to strive to do better, especially the Yankees organization. This disappoints me to no end to be honest because I know what a discouraged heart can do to you and how it can affect your everyday life. I’m discouraged at work and I’m growing to hate my job and most everything else in life. It’s poison.